Trevor Glaum

Senior Porter Cottrell clears a 5’8’’ high jump during the Spartan Invite on March 28.

The Pleasant Valley boys track and field team had their first outdoor meet on March 28. Starting their season on their own turf, the boys opened their season with a second place finish with 171 points.

Multiple boys scored in the top eight in 18 out of the 19 events. They even took home the gold in four events: discus, distance medley, 4×800 relay and the 1600.

Head coach Eric Belby is proud of how everyone competed in the meet and looks forward to what the rest of the season holds for the team. “The home meet was a great debut for our team as we begin the outdoor season.  We made progress in all areas,” said Belby.

Many may see track as an individual sport, but all together it becomes more than an individual sport and becomes a team sport. Overall, Belby knows how much potential his team has in every event, but there are a few people who are really going to make a big impact for the team this season.

“At this point in the season, we have some fine marks from Max Murphy in the 3200, Porter Cottrell and the shuttle hurdle relay crew. Ben Wilson has also shown tremendous potential in the 400 hurdles with his 56.4 season opener Thursday,” said Belby.

Then, there are the distance runners. Max Murphy ran a 9:34 and has automatically qualified for the Drake Relays. “The distance crew also has some nice performances from Parker Huhn (4:29 in the mile), Kole Sommer (4:28), and Ian Kaffenberger (53 in the 400, 2:02 in the 800, and 4:39 in the mile, and 9:51 in the 2 mile),” said Belby.

Cade Collier is also one to look out for on the field event. After spending the majority of his first two years on the team working on footwork and for shotput and discus has allowed Collier to shine now. At the Spartan Invite, Collier took first place in the shot put with a throw of 47 feet and third place in discus with a throw of 144 feet.

“After placing 1st in discus and 3rd in shot-put, I felt like I did what I could to get the max points for the team,” said Collier. Besides trying to accomplish his personal goals Colliers’ main focus is to help out the team in any way he can.

Overall, the team hopes to qualify for the Drake Relays in many events, along with being MAC champs for the potentially 13th time.

The Spartans next meet will be at the Kiwanis Invitational at UTHS April 6, and they are looking for a win.